Pologne (5th) / Tour (13th)
Italian rider from Movistar Team in 4th, overcame only by Swift (SKY), Viviani (LIQ) and Ligthart (VCD) at a demanding sprint on stage five in Zakopane. Wind makes big impact at Tour's stage 13, won by Greipel (LTB)
VIDEO: Tour de France stage 13 highlights
Recovered from incidents after the Giro d’Italia, Giovanni Visconti showed his true colours on Saturday during stage five in the 69th Tour de Pologne, over 163 kilometers from Rabka Zdrój to a tough final circuito in Zakopane with up to five long, not-so-steep climbs that made a big pain on the fastest men in the bunch. The Italian rider from Movistar Team came across the finish in 4th place behind Brit Ben Swift (SKY), Italian Elia Viviani (LIQ) and Dutchman Pim Ligthart (VCD), after a long sprint preceeded by several ataques: the day’s early breakaway, led by Russian Mikhail Ignatiev (KAT) and ultimately chased down by David López into the final 20k, and a latter attempt by four riders under alert from the Blue riders, with Javi Moreno and Ángel Madrazo looking after Visconti’s chances as he sprinted from a long distance to get just few meters off the podium. Sunday will bring the hardest stage on Polish turf, over 191k and five laps to a selective circuit in Bukowina Tatrzanska.
The 2012 Tour de France went through a moving day ahead of the Pyrénées during stage 13 in the Grande Boucle, over 216 kilometers from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Le Cap d’Agde. The crosswinds in the final 40k splitted the peloton in pursuit of the day’s early break, with eight members including Danish Michael Morkov (STB), who went apart with 65k to go for a solo victory chancebefore getting caught into the day’s only climb of Mont Saint-Clair (Cat. 2). Fourty riders were ahead after the short, infamous effort including two Blue riders, Rui Costa and Vladimir Karpets. German André Greipel (LTB) was the day’s winner at the short field sprint before tomorrow’s hard stage to Foix (191km), with two demanding climbs in the finale: the Col de Lers (Cat. 1) and the Mur de Péguère (Cat. 1).